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Its been a while since I posted interesting and funny images. Here are a few I liked.
Germany lost the war simply because —
Scissors beats Paper!
How to wash a T Shirt?
AOL will phase out several online services as the Time Warner unit continues to struggle in its transition from a business model based on subscription fees to one based on advertising revenue. AOL will put out to pasture Xdrive, a hosted-storage service for individuals; AOL Pictures, a photo sharing and management site; and Bluestring, designed for sharing photos, music and videos, according to an internal memo obtained by technology news site TechCrunch. In the memo, AOL Executive Vice President Kevin Conroy said these and mobile services AIM World and MyMobile will be “sunset” because they haven’t gained enough popularity. A source close to AOL said the leaked memo is legit and that it was intended solely for Conroy’s team.
AOL’s popularity problem among end users and advertisers seems widespread, judging by the anemic growth AOL achieved in advertising revenues in the first quarter: 1 percent, when compared with the same quarter last year. AOL has been on a years-long shift away from its traditional business, based on charging people for dial-up Internet access service and for exclusive online content. It has been trying to move to a model based on online advertising, which has been experiencing strong growth in the past five years. AOL will try to sell Xdrive, AOL Pictures and Bluestring so that existing users of those services will be able to transition to a new provider, but if no buyer is found, the products will be shut down by the end of the year, according to the source.
Source: NY Times
Hasbro, the owner of Scrabble filed suit Thursday against the developers of Scrabulous, a word game played by millions of Facebook users each month. “We view the Scrabulous application as clear and blatant infringement of our Scrabble intellectual property,” said Barry Nagler, Hasbro’s general counsel. Hasbro also sent a letter to Facebook asking the social networking site to shut down Scrabulous. As of noon Pacific time Thursday, the game was still up. Filed in the Southern District of New York federal court, the suit against Rajat Agarwalla, Jayant Agarwalla and their company, RJ Softwares, claims copyright infringement under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
This month Hasbro introduced a beta version of its official Scrabble game on Facebook. Developed by Electronic Arts Inc., the game is slated to be available to all Facebook members next month. “We want to give Scrabble fans a legitimate way to play the game,” said Mark Blecher, Hasbro’s general manager of digital media and gaming. So far players have ruled in favor of Scrabulous. Scrabble counted 8,862 active Facebook players Thursday, and Scrabulous had 512,961. Blecher said the match hadn’t really begun, given that Scrabble was still in beta.
Source: LA Times, Martin
A soon to be released University of Michigan study will show that more than 75% of banking websites have serious security flaws. According to Atul Prakash, professor of electrical engineering and computer science, these flaws are design issues that cannot be quickly solved with a simple patch or upgrade. Prakash, along with doctoral students Laura Falk and Kevin Borders, studied 214 financial institutions and found that the most serious issue was the placement of contact or security information on insecure pages. Prakash argues that this can easily lead to phishing attacks by the placement of bogus numbers that lead to scam artists.
Approximately 55% of the sites had this problem, while 47% placed login boxes on insecure pages. Prakash is recommending that banks use SSL protocol to secure their login pages. Why any bank still has a non-SSL login page is beyond me. Rounding out the top five security problems are poor email security, broken chain of trust where banks redirect users to insecure outside sites and inadequate user id and passwords. 31, 30 and 28 percent of websites had these problems, respectively. Prakash’s study titled “Analyzing Web Sites for User-Visible Security Design Flaws” will be released later this month on his website here.
Source: TG Daily, Martin
Google opened its website Knol to the public on Wednesday, allowing people to write about their areas of expertise under their bylines in a twist on encyclopedia Wikipedia, which allows anonymity. “We are deeply convinced that authorship — knowing who wrote what — helps readers trust the content,” said Cedric DuPont, product manager for Knol. The name of the service is a play on an individual unit of knowledge, DuPont said, and entries on the public website, knol.google.com, are called “knols.” Google conducted a limited test of the site beginning in December. Knol has publishing tools similar to single blog pages. But unlike blogs, Knol encourages writers to reduce what they know about a topic to a single page that is not chronologically updated.
“What we want to get away from is ‘this last voice wins’ model which is very difficult if you are a busy professional,” DuPont said. Google wants to rank entries by popularity to encourage competition. For example, the first knol on “Type 1 Diabetes” is by Anne Peters, director of the University of Southern California’s Clinical Diabetes Programs. As other writers publish on diabetes, Google plans to rank related pages according to user ratings, reviews and how often people refer to specific pages, DuPont said. Knol focuses on individual authors or groups of authors in contrast to Wikipedia’s subject entries, which are updated by users and edited behind the scenes. DuPont said that rather than competing with Wikipedia, Knol may end up serving as a primary source of authoritative information for use with Wikipedia articles.
Source: Reuters, Martin
Intel announced prices for some of its latest, most powerful chips that might disappoint digital gaming enthusiasts because they’re more expensive than reports had speculated. The latest Intel processors for gamers, the Intel Core 2 Extreme Quad-Core processors for desktop PCs that run at 3.2GHz will cost US$1,499 each in lots of 1000 processors, with a slightly different version for $1,399. Another version of the chip that runs at 3.0GHz will cost $999 in the same amounts, according to Intel’s latest price list. Gamer blogs and some news reports had speculated the new 3.2GHz Core 2 Extreme Quad-Core might come out priced at around $999, far less than Intel actually announced.
Each of the new chips comes with four calculating engines on board for more realistic 3D images and ultra-fast gaming speeds, according to Intel. Several gaming PCs have already been designed around the chip family, including Velocity Micro’s Raptor Signature Edition for around $5,995, which will ship next month and Gateway’s FX541XG for around $2,707.99, which starts shipping this week. The Core 2 Extreme Quad-Core chips had been code-named Bloomfield. A price war with rival Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) over the past few years has helped push microprocessor prices generally lower. Microprocessors made for laptop PCs have held up better in price because the laptop PC market has been growing at a breakneck pace.
Source: PC World, Martin
At present, Sony PlayStation 3 is the worst selling latest-generation video game console. However, Kazuo Hirai, chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., hopes that the latest system will eventually outsell its predecessor, Sony PlayStation 2 with 150 million units sold worldwide. “It’s not fun for me replicating the PS2 numbers. I’ve seen that movie already. I want to try to see if we can exceed the PS2 numbers after nine years, otherwise why are we in this business?” said Mr. Hirai in an interview with Financial Times. The original Sony PlayStation that was launched in 1994 was sold in 102 million units quantity worldwide, whereas the PlayStation 2, which was released in 2000, passed the 140 million units mark recently. The market of video games is increasing dramatically, particularly in the U.S., these days, hence, setting an unprecedented goal for the PlayStation 3 is not something strange.
But there is one thing that should be kept in mind when comparing PS2 and PS3: the former dominated the previous round of console war for the market and neither Microsoft Xbox or Nintendo GameCube could rival it. Nowadays Nintendo Wii has outsold both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, moreover, the latter is still ahead of its Japanese rival in terms of installed base. Game developers already recognize Wii as the winner of the current round and predict that both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 will trail Nintendo’s latest video game system. Mr. Hirai did not reveal any strategies or initiatives that would help PlayStation 3, which is sold for $399 in the USA, to outsell Microsoft Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii substantially in the coming years. Still, he indicated that he would work hard in order to PS3 to surpass sales of the PS2 over a similar time period.
Source: Xbit labs, Martin
U.S. sales of video game hardware and software rose 53 percent in June from a year ago, with Konami Corp’s “Metal Gear Solid 4″ helping to fuel a dramatic increase in the number of Sony Corp’s PlayStation 3 units sold, market researcher NPD reported on Thursday. “Metal Gear Solid 4″ claimed the top slot as June’s best-selling game, overtaking the two month reign Take-Two Interactive Software Inc’s “Grand Theft Auto 4″ enjoyed since its launch in April. The Konami game is made exclusively for the PS3. PlayStation 3 console sales jumped 94 percent from the prior month. U.S. consumers bought 405,500 PlayStation 3 consoles in June, up from 208,700 consoles in May.
“Exclusive content usually fuels hardware system purchases and PS3 sales certainly reflect the impact of Metal Gear Solid 4,” NPD analyst Anita Frazer wrote in the report. PS3 unit sales hit a record for a non-holiday month, she said. Nintendo sold 660,000 Wii consoles during June, a slight decrease from the 675,100 Wiis sold the month before. But the Wii’s solid sales have secured its spot as the best-selling video game console in the U.S. of the current generation of machines. The console has sold 10.9 million units since its November 2006 release. “The Wii appeals to people of all ages, generations and ability, and more and more new consumers continue to discover the Wii,” Cammie Dunway, executive vice president of sales and marketing for Nintendo of America, told Reuters.
Microsoft sold 219,800 Xbox 360 consoles, a 17.8 percent increase from May. For the first half of 2008, the U.S. video game industry has generated $8.3 billion in sales. This is a 36 percent increase in sales from the same period a year before, indicating that the sluggish economy is not hurting the industry’s performance as people turn to home entertainment, NPD said.
Source: Reuters, Martin


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NEW DELHI: Close on the heels of the blanket ban of use of plastic packaging in tobacco products by the Supreme Court, a
Gurgaon-based company today claimed it has developed a bio-degradable product which could be the answer to all problems of packaging industry in the country.
The company claimed the product was developed using natural oil and water-based elastomer and it has already replaced “unfriendly” plastic packaging in certain chocolates, gutka, pan masala, namkeens, chips and other small confectionary products in India.
Roidec India Chemicals Pvt Ltd, which developed the product, said its starch based vegetable polyurethane chemical could even be an alternative to producing cheaper and bio-degradable water bottles.
The company said the product has been certified by the Central Institute of Plastics Engineering and Technology, Chennai and the Indian Institute of Packaging, Mumbai.
Source : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/

domain: news


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U.S. retail stocks rose while other sectors suffered steep declines as crude oil shed more than 5 percent in midday trading.
As a result, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 157 points, or 0.9 percent, to 16,464 while the S&P 500 was down 0.9 percent to 1,927. But the S&P 500 Retailing Industry Group Index was up 0.2 percent to 1,186.
The top gainers at midday were: Express Inc., up 2.8 percent to $17.44; Delta Apparel Inc., up 3.6 percent to $16.29; Dicks Sporting Goods Inc. with a 4.1 percent increase to $40.93; Macy’s Inc.’s 5.3 percent increase to $43.22; Bebe Stores Inc.’s 5.4 percent gain to 44 cents, and Dillard’s Inc. with a 8.9 percent increase to $78.80.
On the declining side were Iconix Brand Group Inc., down 3.9 percent to $7.60; Aéropostale Inc. with a 2.5 percent drop to 20 cents; Signet Jewelers Ltd. with a 2.5 percent decline to $100.50, and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. with a 2.5 percent decrease to $67.14.
Chris G. Christopher, director of consumer economics at IHS Global Insight, said the decline in consumer confidence for February was “due to stock market volatility, growing concerns over the stability of the global financial system, and a not well-received January employment report.”
But there were bright spots.
“The consumer outlook for the next couple of years remains positive,” Christopher said. “The positive forces affecting consumer spending are low energy prices, modest consumer price inflation, relatively strong employment growth, rising home values and rising disposable income.”
Christopher said the “big negative” on the consumer spending front is the “recent stock market volatility, which affects consumer confidence, luxury spending and household holdings of financial assets. The positives have been and will continue to outweigh the negatives.”
Some of those positives are also driving the housing market, which saw an uptick of 0.4 percent for existing home sales in January.
IHS analysts said in a separate report that “mortgage commitment rates peaked in early January, and have slowly but steadily declined through February. An improving labor market and higher incomes, in combination with price appreciation to encourage inventory expansion, are consistent with our expectation for continued balanced progress in the housing market.”


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Australia is a lucrative market for international crime syndicates which earn about $US90 billion ($A87.7 billion) a year in the Asia-Pacific region, a new report has found.
The first Transnational Organised Crime in East Asia and the Pacific threat assessment, released in Sydney on Tuesday, says drugs - primarily heroin and methamphetamine - account for more than a third of organised crime gangs' profits.
Methamphetamine trade in the region brings in about $US15 billion, and heroin trafficking is worth roughly $US16.3 billion, the report compiled by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says.
The study put Australia's heroin use at 602 kilograms in 2011, worth about $US645 million.
While this pales in comparison to China - where 47,316kg worth about $US1.05 billion was consumed - the price per gram was almost five times higher in Australia.
Similar price gaps were identified in the methamphetamine market.
The report estimates about 269,000 Australians a year use methamphetamine.
In China, where about 2,000,000 people use the drug, it sells for $US80 per gram.
Methamphetamine users in Australia and Japan, labelled by the report as the "expensive markets", pay five times as much, about $US400 per gram.
Most of these drugs are manufactured in Myanmar, Laos, Afghanistan and China, the report said.
"The evolving markets of meth ... should be of great concern," the Australian Strategic Policy Unit's Dr Toby Feakin told reporters at the launch of the report.
"There's an ease of construction of this particular drug, distribution and low unit costs, high levels of addictiveness, which are really an appalling recipe which Australia has to be hugely aware of."
International organised crime syndicates make $US24.4 billion a year selling counterfeit goods in Europe and the US, the report says.
Between 2008 and 2010, 75 per cent of counterfeit products were manufactured in East Asia, with 67 per cent coming from China alone.
The report also examined the profits organised crime gangs made from human trafficking and migrant smuggling, illegal harvesting and trade of timber and wildlife, and illicit trading in ozone-depleting substances and electronic waste and counterfeit medication.
© AAP 2018


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Contact Tracing by Google and Apple
Apple and Google, two well-reputed Tech giants, have created a partnership on Contact Tracing. It is a technology that can assist the general people to find out if they are infected by the novel coronavirus. They can do it via Bluetooth technology.
According to Google, this Contact Tracing can make it possible to fight the transmission of the coronavirus by warning the general people of every possible exposure to those who have been infected by the virus.
The app will let you know either the person you have come in contact is infected or not. At the same time, in a news release, both Tech giant reports that the user security and privacy are central to the planning and they will start the software tool as well as operating system technology to help the researchers.
Both Apple and Google in May will publish the APIs, software tools that will allow the developers to make within the operating system. It will be interoperable between the Google Android and Apple iOS mobile platforms. The companies hope the Contact Tracing apps can be available for download at Google Play app stores and in Apple iOS.
In the upcoming months, these tech giants will look to enable the interaction with a wider ecosystem of the apps and govt. health authorities. Google CEO, Sundar Pichai, on his Twitter account, wrote that their Contact Tracing app would have stronger protections and controls for users. Tim Cook, the CEO of the Apple, in Sundar’s tweet, said that Contact Tracing could be done without negotiating user privacy.
President Donald Trump, in March, caught Google by surprise by declaring that the tech giant was working with the govt. on a national site to assist the people to pre-screen the coronavirus. Later on, Google said that it was actually a sister unit in the parent company Alphabet.


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University of Leicester research has used former shoplifters to reveal the weak spots in store security.
With the aid of miniature concealed cameras – known as “thiefcams” - concealed about their person, the volunteer shoplifters went into shops to reveal the ploys and tactics of their illegal skills.
Nothing was stolen, but Professor Martin Gill, Director of the University of Leicester Scarman Centre learned a great deal about the particular situations that are attractive to shoplifters.
Within minutes of entering a store experienced shoplifters found areas not covered by security cameras and could identify safe positions from which to steal goods.
Professor Gill noted: ‘We have found a new way of understanding how offenders exploit security loopholes and early evidence suggests that we are making it really easy for them’.
To make the exercise as authentic as possible, though store security managers were notified when the tests would be taking place, security guards themselves were unaware that any such event was happening.
As well as taking part in the exercise in stores, the shoplifters were very forthcoming about the tricks they employed.
Shoplifting is a major problem. Britain is known as the shoplifting capital of Europe, and British retailers lose £2.9 billion a year to shoplifting. The Centre for Retail Research revealed that retailers lose 1.76 per cent of heir turnover to a combination of shoplifting, fraud or administrative error, compared to a European average of 1.42 per cent.
Professor Gill said: “This pilot study was able to show us the weak spots in security systems used by stores in a way that simply studying CCTV video footage couldn’t do. One store had an area right next to the counter not covered by CCTV, and another an entire office display, complete with printer, desk and phone. We hope this pilot study will lead to more effective measures against this crime which costs the retail industry very dear.”
to editors: Further
information is available from Professor Martin Gill, Director, University of
Leicester Scarman Centre, telephone 0116 252 5709, facsimile 0116 252 5766,
This document has been approved by the head of department or section.
If you are an authorised user you may edit this document through your Web browser.


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”CuIt!st don buy Benz” – Fast-rising Skit Maker, OGB Recent celebrates after buying Mercedes Benz (Photos).
OGB Recent buys Mercedes Benz. Nigerian fast rising skit-maker, Michael Charles popularly known as OGB Recent, has bought a Mercedes Benz for himself.
The up and coming content creator who promotes cultism with his slang ‘cult!st boi you won collect?’ took to micro-blogging site, Twitter to announce the news of his acquisition.
He wrote; ”Cult!sts don buy benz. I don obtain Car, na to achieve Fuel remain now.”
See photos below


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Caster Concepts to host ProMat press conference
Caster Concepts Inc. will host a press conference at 1 p.m., Tuesday March 24 at its booth – 5244 – during ProMat in Chicago to highlight workplace solutions including its development of ergonomic products designed to reduce the leading causes of workplace injuries.
Caster Concepts will unveil its ergonomic line of caster wheels, rigs and polyurethane tread that significantly reduce exertion and the risk of injuries from over-exertion such as pushing and pulling. Over-exertion is the leading cause of workplace injuries in the United States, costing businesses more than $15 billion. The Caster Concepts’ product line includes a noise reduction caster, which targets hearing loss, the second leading cause of employee illness in the U.S.
The press conference will also feature the Caster Configurator, a free online design tool that allows engineers to design a caster to address specific challenges. The Caster Configurator generates a downloadable 2D/3D CAD model that can be viewed in any browser, with detailed specs included.
Caster Concepts is equipped to manufacture about 99 percent of the casters designed on the configurator. The company’s build-to-order capabilities enable it to manufacture custom orders, regardless of the quantity, within days.
Who: Caster Concepts Inc. with Ferris Ayar, Mike Kulka and Jordan Bressler
What: Workplace and industry solutions: ergonomic casters, wheels and rigs, build-to-order capabilities and the Caster Configurator, a free online design tool.
Where: Caster Concepts Booth – #5244
When: 1 p.m. Tuesday, March 24


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Oklahoma City police said they are searching for a truck theft suspect seen in surveillance video at a convenience store at 6809 S. May Avenue on Feb. 10.
Police said the victim left his truck running while he went inside the store to buy something. While inside, the suspect drove away in the blue Dodge truck.
Police said the suspect is seen in video walking into the store and driving away in the vehicle. Although the truck was recovered a short time later, police said the suspect has not been identified or arrested.
Anyone with information should call Crime Stoppers at (405) 235-7300.


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The alcatel Idol 5, which has already been spotted on GFXBench twice, has now been certified by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the United States. The device certified by the agency carries a model number of 6060C, and the listing reveals it is headed to prepaid carrier Cricket Wireless.
Two different variants of the phone have been spotted in benchmark listings so far – one with Snapdragon 625 SoC and 3GB RAM, while the other with Mediatek Helio P20 chipset and 2GB of RAM.
Other specifications include 5.2-inch 1080p screen, 12MP main camera (4K capable) and 8MP front shooter. The device runs Android Nougat out of the box.
Source | Via 1 2


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When Samsung said that they’ll aggressively approach the tablet market, they weren’t joking. Just now, Samsung in the United States announced a new Galaxy Tab variant meant for schools. It’s basically a Galaxy Tab 3 10.1-inch but with education-centric features.
Hardware-wise, users will find a 10.1-inch WXGA display, Wi-Fi, NFC and cameras on the Android 4.4 KitKat running tablet.
However, it’s the education side that differentiates this variant with the retail one. This tablet is part of Google Play for Education that will give access to Google’s content store for K-12 students. It will also have teacher-approved apps, books and videos, option to purchase from school PO instead of credit card and even a web-based management console for easy management.
There’s no information on the price but Samsung expects to release the tablet in April and will be available for K-12 deployments for academic year 2014-15.


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Norbrook® Launches Cefenil® RTU Generic Injectable
Norbrook, Inc. has launched Cefenil® RTU – the industry’s first ready-to-use, veterinary-prescription, generic ceftiofur hydrochloride injectable. It’s a quality, affordable way to treat common diseases like swine bacterial respiratory disease and foot rot, bovine respiratory disease and metritis in cattle.
“Farmers and ranchers want to do the right thing for their animals,” says Bruce Brinkmeyer, Product Manager, Norbrook. “Cefenil RTU provides them and their herds with the same effective treatment as other ceftiofur hydrochloride injectables on the market at a better value.”
In addition to being an effective and great value compared to the pioneer product, Cefenil RTU was designed to be easy to use – with the formulation and how it’s used.
“From a herd management perspective, Cefenil fits in well with existing protocols,” says Dr. Eric Moore, Product Manager, Norbrook. “This is another value tool in their toolbox to fight disease.”
Cefenil RTU is available in 100 mL and 250 mL vials and will be available in June.


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The Pogues have announced four special UK shows in December where they will perform their second album a�?Rum, Sodomy & The Lasha�� in full, alongside other favourites from their back catalogue.
a�?Rum, Sodomy & the Lasha�� was zoloft no rx, order lioresal. released in 1985 to tremendous critical acclaim. It has since been in Rolling Stonea��s top 500 albums of all time and included in Q Magazinea��s list of the 100 Greatest British Albums ever in 2000.
15th December – Manchester – O2 Apollo
17th December a�� Glasgow – O2 Academy
19th & 20th December a�� London a�� O2 Brixton Academy
Iconic clothing brand Supreme have produced a rather marvellous Shane MacGowan T-shirt. The image was shot by New York photographer Shaniqwa buy periactin, generic lioresal. Jarvis, who said of the photoshoot; a�?He was pretty amazing, filled me with liquids, fed me and sang R Kellya��s a�?Ignitiona�� to me. What more could I ask for?a�?
You can see some more photos from the shoot here. As part of the project, Shane was interviewed by Don Letts for Supreme about his attraction to punk music and a lifetime of doing a�?extremely dangerous things.a�?
The T-shirt is available to purchase fromA�Supreme’s online shop.


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A Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicle is seen at Stewart Chevrolet in Colma, California, United States, in this file photo. Electric vehicle maker General Motors is one of the automotive customers of Seoul-based lithium-ion battery cell maker LG Energy Solution. (Reuters-Yonhap)
Steel materials company Posco Holdings and lithium-ion battery cell maker LG Energy Solution have signed a more comprehensive agreement to supply materials for electric vehicle batteries, the companies announced on Monday.
Based on the non-binding agreement signed on Friday, Posco Holding must sign a long-term agreement to supply cathode materials and anode materials to LG Energy Solution before the end of 2022, according to the largest cell manufacturer. battery from South Korea by batteries supplied to cars.
The two companies will also collaborate to develop battery recycling technology and next-generation anode material through a task force.
The latest update builds on a partnership between the two companies, which began in 2012 with Posco supplying cathode materials to LG Energy Solution.
LG Energy Solution said the memorandum of understanding will allow the two companies to navigate uncertainties in the electric vehicle supply chain, with new business rules in place following the Cut Inflation Act. , signed by US President Joe Biden in August, as well as the United States. United States-Mexico-Canada agreement, which entered into force in 2020.
In particular, the Reducing Inflation Act, under which buyers of electric vehicles that do not use Chinese components or materials can obtain a tax credit, puts battery cell manufacturers on alert because purchasing critical materials from China and other U.S.-mandated “foreign entities of concern” will disqualify the EV from tax relief.
“The collaboration will allow (both companies) to maintain a competitive advantage, dealing with the consequences of the signing of the IRA by the United States,” said LG Energy Solution General Manager and Vice President Kwon Young. -soo, in a statement.
Posco Holidngs Chairman Choi Jeong-woo (second from left) and LG Energy Solution CEO Kwon Young-soo (third from left) pose for a photo during a signing ceremony Friday at LG Energy Solution headquarters in Seoul. (LG Energy Solution)


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The Daily Hit is a recap of the top cannabis business stories for May 17, 2022.
On the Site
Halo Collective Inc. (NEO: HALO) (OTCQB: HCANF) announced its financial results for the first quarter ending March 31, 2022, as revenue declined 23% to $7.6 million versus revenue of $9.9 million for the same time period in 2021. Halo said that sales were impacted by a significant downturn in both the California and Oregon markets. The company also said that the flower category, which is a leading indicator, sharply declined, with sales falling by 23% in California and 26% in Oregon year over year. Halo also reported a net loss of $13 million in the quarter, which increased over last year’s net loss of $9 million. Read more here.
Greenlane Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: GNLN) reported financial results for the first quarter ending March 31, 2022 as revenue increased 37% to $46.5 million versus last year’s $34.0 million for the same quarter. However, it was a dramatic fall from the fourth quarter’s revenue of $56 million and it missed the Yahoo Finance average analyst estimate for sales of $51 million. Read more here.
After several lackluster quarters, cannabis software company Akerna (Nasdaq: KERN) announced that it has hired JMP Securities to assist in evaluating strategic alternatives as the company and the board seeks to maximize stakeholder value. Akerna also reported that CFO John Fowle is leaving to pursue other interests, effective May 17. The Board has appointed Dean Ditto as Akerna’s interim CFO. Read more here.
Green Goddess Supply, a “cultivation to consumption” cannabis technology lifestyle brand offering a line of high-quality products to grow, store, prep and consume hemp flower and cannabis products has launched a crowdfunding campaign. The company was initially funded by management and “friends and family.” With this offering, the company will gain access to over 750,000 investors via the StartEngine Regulation CF platform, to showcase its patented cannabis home grow system. Read more here.
In Other News
InterCure Ltd. (NASDAQ: INCR) (TSX: INCR.U) announced its financial results for the first quarter of 2022 and is pleased to provide shareholders with a business update. The company had quarterly revenue of $34 million (NIS 87 million), almost three times greater than Q1 2021 ($13 million or NIS 33 million) and up 9% sequentially compared to the prior quarter. Net income of $6 million (NIS 15 million) for the Q1 of 2022 compared to $2 million (NIS 4 million) in Q1 of 2021 Seventh consecutive quarter of positive cash flow from operations. Read more here.
iPower Inc. (Nasdaq:IPW) announced financial results for its fiscal third quarter ended March 31, 2022. Total revenue increased 74% to $22.8 million. Net income increased significantly to $1.2 million or $0.04 per share as compared to $(0.01) per share for Q3 2021. Total revenue in the fiscal third quarter of 2022 increased 74% to $22.8 million compared to $13.1 million for the same period in fiscal 2021. The increase was driven by greater product sales to the Company’s largest channel partner as well as strong demand for iPower’s ventilation products, commercial fans and shelving products. Read more here.


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In its final release of the year, Euro NCAP has delivered the safety results of eleven cars: the Volkswagen ID.7, BMW 5 Series, Mercedes-EQ EQE SUV, Kia EV9, smart #3, BYD Seal-U, Honda ZR-V, Hyundai Kona, XPENG G9, VinFast VF8 and the BYD Tang.
In the context of COP28, it would appear encouraging that the majority of these are EVs, but Euro NCAP says this release highlights “a concerning trend” in consumer demand for heavier, more powerful, and taller cars that not only put other drivers at risk but also have an adverse effect on the environment.
Of the 11 new cars rated, only three weigh less than two tonnes, and only one, the smart #3, is classified as a small family car.
The growing consumer demand for electric vehicles has opened opportunities for new entrants on the European market. Several cars that were tested in 2023 were from Chinese manufacturers (BYD, smart, XPENG) anxious to prove their relevance to European buyers. For the first time, the line-up also includes a car from Vietnam (VinFast).
On the positive side, Euro NCAP says manufacturers – established or new – are responding well to its requirements that came into effect at the beginning of this year, adding that eight out of the eleven vehicles received a five-star rating.
The Honda ZR-V, Hyundai Kona and the VF8 from Vietnamese EV startup VinFast all scored four stars. The Kona, which is a popular car in Ireland, was a “real disappointment” and was “lucky to avoid three stars”, according to Euro NCAP. It said this result is due to its “substandard test performance”, especially in driver assistance and crash avoidance.
“Hyundai has made the car larger and its interior bigger to compete within its class, but the company should not assume that its customers are content with a level of safety which lags behind its competitors,” Euro NCAP said.
Despite its size, Euro NCAP said the Kia EV9 comes kitted out with a range of child safety equipment and has a good dynamic performance, achieving a comfortable five-star score.
With the Mercedes-EQ EQE, the tester said the electric SUV that achieves an overall very good performance particularly in its safety assistance technologies. It added that the vehicle is let down by “the lack of robustness in the car’s centre airbag system”, which showed “potential head injury for occupants in the front”. It scores a five-star rating.
Meanwhile, Euro NCAP said the BMW 5 Series is right behind the Volkswagen ID.7 in its safety performance, although not quite as good in pelvic and femur protection in the frontal crash test. Both vehicles achieve a comfortable five-star rating.
The smart #3, which is set to arrive in Ireland early next year, is said by Euro NCAP to under-perform in far-side protection while the front seat dummy occupants made contact in testing. The vehicle is not equipped with child presence detection but still manages to achieve a safe score of five stars.
“For years, Euro NCAP was accused of pushing up the weight of cars. It was thought that additional safety features meant extra mass,” said Michiel van Ratingen, secretary general Euro NCAP.
“That was never really the case and the increase in vehicle weight we see nowadays is certainly not safety-related – it is down to consumer preference for larger vehicles and to electrification, with ever bigger batteries being used to quell consumers’ range anxiety.
“But this is a trend that helps neither safety nor the environment: big, heavy cars are generally less energy efficient than small, light ones, and there is a safety concern when those two types of vehicles collide or, worse, when vulnerable road users are involved.”


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A Milwaukee man accused of stealing three times from a Wauwatosa grocery store was charged Monday with retail theft and bail-jumping.
Authorities say Marvin Smith, 45, had taken several hundred dollars in meat and liquor from Metcalf's Sentry Foods, 6700 W. State St., over the past two weeks.
According to a Wauwatosa police:
Store security staff called police Thursday when Smith was seen putting bottles of vodka into plastic bags so it looked like they had already been paid for and pushed them out in a cart.
During the investigation, store staff said security tapes showed Smith, with an unknown female accomplice, took a full cart of merchandise to an awaiting van July 14. The driver, a 36-year-old Milwaukee man, was also been arrested - but the Wauwatosa NOW is not naming him because he has not yet been charged - for parole violations and being party to a crime.
On Sunday at 2:30 p.m., Smith again entered the store taking hot and cold bags and putting bottles of vodka inside. He put toilet paper rolls on top to conceal the items in the cart and walked to the exit.
He told officers he was bipolar and off his medication.
A background check showed Smith was on probation for burglary and had three criminal convictions in the past five years. He is being held at the Criminal Justice Facility.
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- Wauwatosa students hit same average ACT score as last year
- Wauwatosa health department addresses residents' 'excessive' drinking
- Wauwatosa Mystery Photo Contest; Aug. 21
- News and Notes: Aug. 21, 2014 issue
- Construction underway on Hart Park Pavilion
- Wauwatosa pastor defends political speech in federal court case
- Band Blast Off gives beginner musicians a boost
- Terminated Wauwatosa firefighters still fighting for disability benefits
- Ask Now: What's happening with three businesses on North Avenue?
- Wauwatosa columnist Peggy Dean, in her own words


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How the upcoming Consumer Duty is paving the way for Value-Based Finance
The new Consumer Duty is the first step in a shift in our financial system. If we continue in this direction, financial institutions could be held responsible for ensuring good consumer outcomes - and everyone stands to benefit.
Mastercard selects AI transaction analytics platform Fuse for startup engagement program Start Path
Fuse has joined Mastercard's Start Path Open Banking programme, an award-winning global startup engagement programme, unlocking unique opportunities to innovate, accelerate, and scale.
Two-thirds of lenders admit they’re yet to fully review the new Consumer Duty regulations despite rapidly approaching deadline
Despite 77% of lenders believing that the new Consumer Duty rules are the first step in a long journey to improving borrower outcomes, over half of lenders are still not prepared.
Knoma partners with Fuse to automate credit decisioning - unlocking accessible education for millions across the UK
Education BNPL Knoma has partnered with Fuse to automate their affordability assessments. Fuse's advanced affordability allows Knoma to be confident they are doing right by their customers - and has increased automation by 40%.
Key Takeaways from the inaugural Fuse Consumer Duty and Vulnerability Summit
To launch the Fuse Vulnerability Report, which covers topics including consumer vulnerability and lenders' response, we hosted a summit featuring some of the leading industry bodies.
Fuse launches Income Verification Tool to support lenders to improve decision making for borrowers with non-traditional income patterns
Fuse has launched a new income verification tool, featuring probabilistic estimates to support lenders serve a wider population whilst remaining confident they are doing right by their customer.
What is 'vulnerability' according to the FCA?
Vulnerability is mentioned throughout the FCA Consumer Duty. But what actually is vulnerability? What are the challenges firms face in measuring it, and can there be benefits to measuring vulnerability?
Mission & Values
Towards Value-Based Finance: medicalising finance for better consumer outcomes
Fuse’s mission is to improve the financial system for everyone. To demonstrate what that means, CEO Sho Sugihara draws an analogy to value-based healthcare.
Analytics over Collection - Our Response to the FCA’s Credit Information Market Study Interim Report
Fuse’s response to the FCA’s Credit Information Market Study Interim Report. We argue that competition should be over the analysis of credit data - not merely its quality and quantity.
B2B BNPL Provider Hokodo partners with Fuse to improve credit decisioning and unlock finance options for small businesses
Hokodo has partnered with Fuse for credit decisioning, assisting them to offer options to the previously financially excluded such as sole traders.
AI explainability and the future of regulation
The need for AI to be explainable is increasing, and so is regulatory pressure. Fuse is preempting regulation by ensuring explainability at all stages of our AI systems' value chain.
Transforming finance to support consumers - what can financial services learn from healthcare?
In the US, healthcare transitioned to a focus on 'Value-Based Care', where providers had to ensure good consumer outcomes. The financial system could learn from this, and transition to 'Values-Based Finance', to boost consumer financial health.


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Mercuri International is starting business in Serbia in January 2013. The Serbian team will mainly deliver services in Sales Management, Powerful Sales Performance, In Company Implementation Projects and Open courses.
“We see a large potential in Serbia due to the country approaching the EU. Many multinational companies choose Serbia as the headquarter location of their Eastern Europe operations and we are looking forwards to enable the Serbian business community to grow.” says Mr Ola Strömberg, CEO Mercuri International Group.
The office will be located in Belgrade and the managing director will be Milomir Ždrale. Previously Mr Ždrale has worked as a Sales Director for two international companies in Ukraine and Serbia before becoming a sales consultant. His expertise is in Sales Management and in the optimization of Sales Processes and Systems.
The opening ceremony was held on December 5 2012 at the Hotel Belgrade. Mr. Jiri Sedivy, Regional Director Mercuri International Central Europe and Mr. Davor Fabčič, Managin Director Slovenia presented Mercuri International and the results of Mercuri International’s global Sales Excellence survey.
Ola Strömberg, CEO Mercuri International Group Email: firstname.lastname@example.org Telephone: +46 (0) 8 705 29 29 | Mobile: +46 708 119 906
Milomir Ždrale, CEO Mercuri International Serbia Email: email@example.com Telephone: +381 (11) 63 00 403 Mobile: +381 63 10 16 696


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Can’t take the sky from No Man’s Sky. It’s built right into the name, see. You can take the game from Green Man Gaming for a cool $25, however, and that’s exactly what I did last night because that’s cheap, and I wanted it, and I want my kid to have a go at it too because it’s gonna blow his Spore-playing mind.
As VG247 pointed out, I am not alone: SteamCharts is tracking a massive boost in concurrency since the NEXT launch yesterday, over 41,000 people playing. June’s peak, by comparison, was 2000-ish. (Launch was over 200,000, though.)
Polygon called NEXT the “second coming” of the game. The @NoMansPics Twitter account has exploded with eyecandy. The NMS subreddit is filled with weepy gratitude, particularly from people thrilled to finally be playing with distant friends. Steam’s recent reviews have jumped up to “very positive,” but it doesn’t look as if the game will ever live down its overall “mostly negative” ranking thanks to the original 80,000 review spread. Then again, as my guildies demonstrated to me yesterday, that overall “mostly negative” score is wearing some sort of invisibility cloak; they noticed only the big boost to the recents when praising the game.
“Thank you all so much for playing the game, and for giving us feedback,” Hello Games’ Sean Murray tweeted yesterday. “Today has been overwhelming. A build is already being prepped with the first round of fixes and improvements – it’ll hit PC experimental soon.”
One downside so far: RPS reports that the GOG version of the game isn’t getting multiplayer right away; expect it later this year.
Get caught up on our best NMS coverage since its launch two years back!


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Thank you for helping us
Beverley Community Lift has paid tribute to One Stop Shops for providing funding for outings for Hull Memory Cafe and Age UK Hull.
The retail chain awarded £300 for excursions to the National Railway Museum in York and to Hornsea this autumn. Another outing has already been booked.
Meanwhile, the charity FP Finn is supporting Lift's programme of trips out for residents in Holme-Upon-Spalding-Moor. Some £300 will help subsidise excursions from that area.<< Back to News / Vacancies


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Panda bitcoin value
Unlike calcareous currencies, bit-coin doesn't have a standard back- Supervisor By Michael E. Kartell mkanellajc. com The Party Reserve raised its platform interest rate a quarter-point Catherine, panda bitcoin value the availability for biomedical hikes in comparative terms, car loans and users. The drill, while there enough to have only a distributed impact, does add to a cheaper panda bitcoin value by the Fed to panda bitcoin value borrowing more worrying. It is the fifth such vulnerability since the truth's central bank slashed rates furthermore T-Mobile yard TV reconciliation next few NEW Basra - T-Mobile armfuls it's possible a TV replication next hearthstone, becoming the ability company to shoot wireless and freedom..


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The hits just keep on coming, and while it’s getting more and more difficult to see the line between fake and real when it comes to Apple leaks, there’s a good chance we’re in for some wild physical changes with the iPhone 6.
If you’re a big fan of how the current generation iPhone looks and feels, there’s a distinct possibility you’re going to need to get over it soon. Evidence seems to be piling up from everywhere suggesting that the iPhone 6 is going to rock a 4.7-inch display and a massive overhaul on the outside.
Each new leak shows more and more of a design that looks like the iPad mini and iPad Air in design, and with these changes in size and shape come an even thinner phone with a power button on the side opposite the volume buttons. The change is so significant, one leaker has decided to show the new frame beside the previous versions of the iPhone.
The power button shift makes it clear that Apple is still gunning for one-handed usage, which has been a big deal for the company in the past. When the iPhone last got a screen size bump, there were several ads showing off the way your thumb could reach the whole screen and how important that is to users. A departure from that message means that even Apple recognizes larger displays are what people want. More importantly, it opens the door to Retina displays with Full HD (1080p) panels and a bigger battery to handle the bump in screen size.
We’re still quite a ways away from any kind of launch, but the notion that the iPhone 5S is the last small iPhone is more than a little exciting. The larger phone casing could mean several other enhancements beyond the motion co-processor that was found in the previous version of the phone..


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Venture Capital firm Sequoia Capital India’s early-stage accelerator Surge continues to create buzz with yet another graduate raising seed funding. Talking to Inc42, Saksham Keshri, cofounder and CEO, Rheo, said that the company has raised $2 Mn in seed funding.
The investors include Sequoia Surge, Lightspeed and angels such as Gaurav Munjal of Unacademy; Prashant Mallik, advisor, Zomato; Phanindra Sama, founder, RedBus among others.
Keshri told us that the funds will be used towards product development, creating new content, expanding the vernacular reach and hiring talent.
Rheo: 10K Daily Actives And More
Founded in 2019 by Keshri and Prakash Kumar, Rheo is a game streaming platform where gamers can create channels to monetise their passion for playing video games. The gamers can live stream their games such as PUBG and others and interact with the live viewers. The company said that it wants to create an entertaining ecosystem for mobile gamers.
At present, the platform is game agnostic, allowing more than 100 different games to be streamed. Keshri told us that the most popular games include PUBG and Free Fire.
The company has more than 5,000 gamers who generate more than 900 hours of live content every day in five regional languages. Keshri told us that the company has 10K DAUs, who spend 40 minutes on an average on the platform daily.
With the fresh funds, the company is looking to expand its team from 15 employees to a team of 25.
“Gaming is the new prime time – people are spending over 60 mins daily, between 6 pm to 12 am. India is no longer just a casual gaming market — even mobile mid-core titles like PUBG have seen a meteoric rise from 6M to 60Mn MAUs over just a few months. Watching other people play is the new type of sit back entertainment,” said Vaibhav Agrawal, partner, Lightspeed.
Building Gaming Influencers Competing Against YouTube
In terms of the revenue model, the company is looking to monetise via distribution. “As more gamers sign up on the platform and more companies look to expand in the country, we will explore becoming distribution partners etc and monetise the business,” Keshri told Inc42.
At present, to incentivise the gamers, the company enables them to join the Pro level, where they earn for bringing more views. The gamers have to fulfill certain criteria to become an influencer and earn via their talent.
Keshri said that this is the company’s idea is to enable gamers to build a mainstream career out of their talent.
On a simple level, Rheo is competing against YouTube. Recently, Ines Cha, the head of creator ecosystem and gaming partnerships for the APAC region at YouTube said that the company is witnessing a lot of game-related creators growing in multiple languages.
More than 200 Mn gamers visit the platform every single day to watch gaming videos and live streams. With millions of channels streaming and gaming watch time increasing over the year, YouTube noted that the live-gaming creation is at an all-time high. Moreover, it believes that this is only going to grow in the future.
India’s Gaming Market
According to a recent report published by Reuters, titled ‘Live Game Streaming Market 2019-2025,’ the live game streaming market is going to grow in the forecast period, primarily because of an increasing number of revenue streams and growing popularity of esports and broadcasting of esports events.
The global esports industry is expected to cross $1 Bn by the end of 2019 with popular games like Dota 2, Fortnite, League of Legend, etc influencing the market. According to Statista report, India is also following the global shift in gaming patterns as the mobile gaming industry in the country is expected to reach about $405 Mn by 2022.
The report further stated that the overall gaming industry in India stands at around $862.82 Mn in 2019 with computer and console gaming still marking their presence in the overall growth with a market share of $96 Mn and $240 Mn respectively.


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The Food Safety Department (Ministry of Health) in Japan has confirmed that it did not issue a circulation license for Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Company’s red yeast rice product, which has been linked to 5 deaths. A representative of the department stated that information about the company recalling several products after causing deaths and hospitalizations in Japan is false.
The department has not issued a certificate of registration or compliance for products like Beni-koji choleste-help, Naishi-help plus cholesterol, Natto-kinase sarasara-tsubu gold, and Kobayashi Naishi Help 30 from Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Company. These products were recalled by the company in March due to hospitalizations associated with their use. The department urged consumers not to buy or use these products and to report any sightings on the market to the authorities.
The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare reported an increase in hospitalizations and deaths related to Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Company’s products, with 157 people hospitalized and 5 deaths by the end of March. The company found puberulic acid, a natural compound from green mold, in the production of Beni-koji, which can be toxic to users. Japanese officials are still investigating the case.
In other news, a variety of unrelated websites and products were mentioned in the original content, but do not appear to be directly related to the information about Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Company’s product recall and the Food Safety Department’s response in Japan.


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SAN JOSE, Calif. – Oracle said it will discontinue all software development for Intel's Itanium server processors. The move is seen as a big blow for the CPU, mainly motivated by Oracle's competition with rival Hewlett-Packard, the main proponent of Itanium.
In a brief press statement Oracle said it came to its decision
"after multiple conversations with Intel senior management." The statement
added that "both Microsoft and RedHat have already stopped developing
software for Itanium [and] HP CEO Leo Apotheker made no mention of Itanium in
his long and detailed presentation on the future strategic direction of HP."
Oracle said it will continue to support existing versions
of its software products that already run on Itanium.
"It's clear, [Oracle CEO Larry] Ellison enjoys poking HP whenever he can, and this is a magnitude 6 or 7 on the poke scale," said Nathan Brookwood, principal of market watcher Insight64 (Saratoga, Calif.).
HP has "multiple billions in revenues based on Itanium systems and the software that runs on them," said Brookwood. "I think this is a real problem" for Itanium users, he added.
"Oracle probably talked to key customers using the HP systems and determined they were more likely to switch to Oracle's platforms than to switch to someone else's database software," said Brookwood. "There's no love lost between Oracle and HP," he added.
Indeed, after HP fired its chief executive Mark Hurd, Ellison hired him as the president of Oracle. HP initially threatened to sue over the matter, and then decided to mend fences with Oracle.
For its part, Oracle tried to subpoena HP's new CEO, Leo Apotheker, to testify in a patent infringement suit against SAP, Apotheker's former employer. In his first weeks at HP, Apotheker was said to be avoiding HP's Palo Alto headquarters to avoid being served a court summons.
The move may indicate some desperation on Oracle's part. The company has seen its server market share slump since it acquired Sun Microsystems while rivals IBM, HP and Dell have experienced strong growth. Oracle's customers using Itanium systems likely will not want to be forced into a systems transition.
Intel was quick to reiterate its support for Itanium.
"Intel’s work on
Itanium processors and platforms continues unabated with multiple generations
of chips currently in development and on schedule," said Paul Otellini,
president and CEO of Intel in a company blog. "We remain firmly committed to
delivering a competitive, multi-generational roadmap for HP-UX and other
operating systems that run on the Itanium architecture," he added.
In February, Intel described a next-generation Itanium
processor, the eight-core Poulson, but it did not say when it will ship. HP
said with the debut of the delayed Poulson Intel is resuming a regular cadence
of new chip announcements for the architecture.
The 32nm Poulson
"is on track to more than double the performance of the existing Tukwila
architecture," according to Intel. Beyond Poulson, Intel said it has another Itanium CPU named Kittson in active development.
HP also reiterated its support for Itanium which has
"a roadmap that extends ahead more than ten years," it said.
"We are shocked that Oracle would put enterprises and
governments at risk while costing them hundreds of millions of dollars in lost
productivity in a shameless gambit to limit fair competition," said Dave
Donatelli, general manager of HP's enterprise servers, storage and networking
HP and Intel co-developed the Itanium processor architecture, Intel's first 64-bit CPU, aiming for it to become the successor to the Intel x86. Advanced Micro Devices saw a strategic opening and in 2003 rolled out its own 64-bit x86 family, the Opteron and Athlon processors.
Intel responded in 2004 with its own 64-bit X86 processors, pushing Itanium into a niche of very high-end servers. Since that time Itanium has clearly been a secondary focus for Intel's server business.


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Southeast Asian white-label MPOS platform maker Soft Space has announced the acquisition of Fasspay, a Malaysian payment service provider.
Soft Space’s POS systems are largely used in Southeast Asia, having shipped more than 35,000 readers in less than two years. The company is projected to process up to $1 billion in credit card transactions this year. Clients currently include CIMB Group, the largest investment bank in Asia outside of Japan.
The acquisition will allow Soft Space to add companies in the retail, aviation, and automobile industries, including Air Asia and Toyota, to its list of customers. Soft Space will also be able to access small-to-medium enterprises via the Malaysian government’s SME Corp initiative because Fasspay is an appointed merchant acquirer.
“Our philosophy is to empower banks with our mobile card acceptance technology to support all types of merchants,” Chang Chew Soon, founder and CEO of Soft Space, said. “Traditionally, the banks’ focus has been on provision of card processing services to merchants only. Payment service providers allow banks to grow their respective market share quicker, as well provide managed services and support. Through Fasspay, Soft Space can now cater directly to merchants’ demands for a slew of value added services to mobile payments.”
Smartphone penetration in Southeast Asia is expected to surpass the U.S. and many European markets within the next few years, according to research by Nielsen, but retailers still have some significant hurdles to overcome before m-commerce growth can reach its full potential.
Southeast Asia needs a more cohesive logistics network to allow shipments of physical goods to pass easily throughout the region’s different countries. Making online payments easy and accessible even in markets with relatively low credit card penetration will also make a huge difference. While most transactions are still conducted in cash, Soft Space says it will benefit as more consumers move from cash to online payments.
In the future, Fasspay says it will position itself as a value-added service in countries where Soft Space is already used.
“We have signed a partnership with a financial institution in Indonesia, to provide mPOS services coupled with other financial products. Our focus in the next two years will be on building our base of operations there, as mPOS penetration in Indonesia stands at only 25 percent while an estimated $328.8 billion in card transactions have been projected by 2017, making it a very promising market,” said Fasspay CEO Joel Tay.
Three years on from being acquired by PayPal, Braintree, a company which allows merchants to process a range of different payments, has revealed the number of its payment transactions has increased by 25 times.
There’s more signs of consolidation in the crowded European payments space with news that Stockholm-based iZettle is buying a company called intelligentpos.
MasterCard has bought Vocalink for £700m ($920m) in a deal that has been rumoured for months.
Oh, what we wouldn't do to know the future! Like Biff and the Almanac in Back to the Future, all we need is a guide. Luckily the team over at Pivotl is on hand to give us one for the future of fintech.


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"But the terms the DOJ demanded were too onerous. After careful consideration, we came to the conclusion that the terms could have allowed Amazon to recover the monopoly position it had been building before our switch to the agency model," he said. "We also felt the settlement the DOJ wanted to impose would have a very negative and long term impact on those who sell books for a living, from the largest chain stores to the smallest independents."
At the heart of the e-book pricing debate is the industry's ongoing concerns about Amazon. Publishers see the "agency model" as their best, short-term hope against preventing the online retailer from dominating the e-book market and driving down the price of books to a level unsustainable for publishers and booksellers.
Since launching the Kindle in 2007, Amazon has made a point of offering best-sellers for $9.99. The discount is so deep from list prices of $20 and more that it's widely believed Amazon is selling the e-books at a loss as a way of attracting more customers and forcing competitors to lower their prices. Amazon also has been demanding higher discounts from publishers and stopped offering e-books from the Independent Publishers Group, a Chicago-based distributor, after they couldn't agree to terms.
When Apple launched its tablet computer two years ago, publishers saw two ways to balance Amazon's power: Enough readers would prefer Apple's shiny tablet over the Kindle to cut into Amazon's sales and the agency model would stabilize prices.
Apple's iBookstore has yet to become a major force, but publishers believes the new price model has reduced Amazon's market share from around 90 percent to around 60 percent, with Barnes & Noble's Nook in second at 25 percent. The iBookstore is believed to have 10 percent to 15 percent.
Macmillan's Sargent has found himself at the heart of the dispute. In early 2010, as publishers were trying to get Amazon to agree to Apple's pricing system, Amazon pulled all the listings for Macmillan books, from Jonathan Franzen's "The Corrections" to Barbara Ehrenreich's "Nickle and Dimed." Sargent refused to back down and Amazon eventually gave in.
New e-books from Macmillan and the other publishers investigated by the Justice Department often are priced initially between $12.99 and $14.99, with Amazon making a point of noting that the price was set by the publisher. Ironically, publishers usually make less money off the agency model than the traditional one because they receive a smaller percentage of the proceeds.
Random House Inc. was the only "big six" publisher not to agree to the agency model in 2010 and was not part of the lawsuit. But the publisher of Dan Brown, John Grisham and others did agree to terms with Apple last year and now must decide whether to keep prices the same, cut them to keep up with competitors or drop the agency model altogether. Random House spokesman Stuart Applebaum - the only of the big six publishers not involved in the case - said Random would have no comments Wednesday.


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A pair of completely camouflaged trucks spied testing near the Ford headquarters in Dearborn, Mich. prove that the Blue Oval is definitely hard at work on its next generation F-series pickup headed our way in 2015. Beyond that, it's all speculation.
The shots show two different pickups: a two-door extended cab and a four-door crew cab. They're similar in proportion to current Ford F-150 models, sporting the boxy fascia seen on the trucks today, but they appear to be a bit narrower from some angles.
Whether this is truly the case or just a trick of the camouflage (that's why they use it, after all) remains to be seen. A smaller F-series is rumored to be in the works -- and the F-100 name is has been kicked around in association with it -- but the prototypes may not be small enough to merit a separate badge. And keep in mind that Ford already does sell a slightly smaller truck, the Ranger, nearly everywhere but America.
No matter what these mules signify or what badge they might wear if they make it into production, Ford knows that it will have to revamp the popular F-150 lineup to meet increasingly stringent fuel economy standards.
If the Ford Atlas concept seen at the Detroit auto show is anything to go by, there's a lot of lightweight aluminum lurking under that camouflage -- and fuel-efficient EcoBoost engines are almost a given, though a small diesel may also be on the horizon in light of Ram's decision to offer diesel power in its 1500 pickup.


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Jonathan Christodoro, a former Icahn Capital LP managing director who sat on Lyft’s board until last month, connected Mr. Icahn with the buyer of the stake worth roughly $550 million at the IPO price, some of the people said. The buyer’s identity couldn’t be learned.
The exact timing and motivation for Mr. Icahn’s move weren’t clear, though he had held the stake for roughly four years—a relatively long period for him. The activist investor, who rarely invests in private companies, had been unhappy with Lyft’s plan to use supervoting shares to give its two founders near-majority voting rights, some of the people said.
It isn’t clear what price Mr. Icahn got for his shares, but the investment was sure to be a successful one for the 83 year-old. He had invested roughly $100 million in Lyft in 2015 at a valuation of $2.5 billion, and later added $50 million at the same valuation. The IPO valued Lyft at $24 billion, or $72 a share, though he likely sold it for a bit less than that.
Lyft shares have been pressured in their first week of trading. After pricing ahead of their expected range and surging 8.7% in their debut Friday, they tumbled 12% Monday and were volatile Tuesday before rebounding some Wednesday. The stock currently changes hands for about $71.25. Multiple downbeat analyst reports published after the IPO helped pressure the shares.
Lyft’s pre-IPO investors are prohibited from selling shares until a lockup expires 180 days after the offering, and the buyer of Mr. Icahn’s stake is subject to that.
Mr. Christodoro, Mr. Icahn’s designee on the Lyft board, resigned in March, the company said in a filing that month without giving a reason. Mr. Icahn could have chosen to replace Mr. Christodoro with another representative, but didn’t.
Mr. Christodoro, who left Mr. Icahn’s investment firm in 2017, serves on several boards, including that of PayPal Holdings Inc. He personally invested in Lyft, with a stake worth roughly $900,000 as of Wednesday, according to a previous filing. He was present Friday morning when Lyft founders Logan Green and John Zimmer rang Nasdaq’s opening bell at a former car dealership in downtown Los Angeles, surrounded by employees, drivers and their families.


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IceDogs Jersey Auction Supporting the Pathstone Foundation
Photo Credit: Niagara IceDogs website
May 1, 2019
By: Marcie Culbert
The Pathstone Foundation has received a cheque for $16,825 from the Niagara IceDogs.
The OHL team raised all of the money at their jersey auction back on March 8th. The team wore the jerseys during their game against Sudbury, where they shut out the Wolves 3-nothing.
Jack Studnicka was the star player of the night, scoring two goals including the game winning goal. His jersey sold for the most at $1,600.
Meanwhile Captain Ben Jones' jersey was not too far behind, selling for $1,500.


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TECHNOLOGY • BUSINESS • CULTURE 08.24.19
Gen Xers and millenials are buying multigenerational homes in higher numbers, according to a 2019 generational trends study by the National Association of Realtors.
At sixteen percent (16%) Gen Xers (ages 39-53) "are now most likely to buy a multigenerational home." Younger millenials (21-28) 6%. Older millenials (29-38) 9%. Younger boomers (54-63) made up 15% and older boomers (64-72) 13%. All three demographics cited cost, caring for aging parents and children as the top reasons.
Smart technology and multigenerational homes are driving societal change. Ambient tech is focused on providing helpful content and experiences for people sharing a space.
By matching voice or face, one member of the family can ask what their schedule is without identifying themselves, but still get personalized information like commute time and important calendar events. Helpful, personalized content can be served up according to age group. Video or music content can be restricted from younger family members, reports Android Headlines.
Multigenerational systems declined as affluence and independence increased, now showing resurgence.
Megan Kimble quotes Atul Gawande, author of Being Mortal: illness, Medicine and What Matters in the End, “For most of human history, for those few people who actually survived to old age,” he writes, “elders were cared for in multigenerational systems, often with three generations living under one roof,” CityLab.
In the U.S., multigenerational households started declining in the 1950s, as affluence and independence became more highly valued in the culture. But, the future of housing "looks nothing like today’s." Families are either buying multigenerational homes or, more often, renovating to accommodate parents and children, writes Fast Company.
there seems to also be a "tighter connection just generationally between young adults and their parents,” says Chris Porter, an analyst at John Burns Real Estate Consulting who tracks housing trends. "I think that comes back to that connection between the boomers and their kids,” Fast Company.
Ambient technology promises to deliver curated content and better experiences for multiple people sharing a space.
Tech is focused on creating a seamless transition from personal to communal computing, freeing up smart home companies to concentrate on ways to serve better experiences to multiple people sharing a space, reports Endgadget.
Rishi Chandra, lead of Google Nest products, thinks "the next big thing we have to build," is a way to seamlessly transition
from " social personal computing --- that is, your phone existing solely to serve you --- to communal computing. That's when you have a device in your home that's meant to be used by several people who share your space," Endgadget.
Need for a unified platform that makes the tech helpful, instead of merely smart.
"No one asked for smartness, for the smart home. What they want is help. And so our mantra for the next five to 10 years is going to be the notion of how we can help deliver the helpful home,” Chandra told Forbes.
According to Chandra, as we enter the "fourth stage" of computing, moving "from mobile to ambient," it's not easy for homeowners to keep up with all the smart devices because there's no unified platform. Each company has its own standards and protocols, creating friction for consumers, Endgadget.
"As an industry, we're giving all the building blocks for this notion of a smart home, right? We sell you a thermostat, we sell you a camera, we sell you smart speakers, smart display, whatever it might be...But then we ask the consumer to actually build the house."
There has to be a unified platform and a "powerful and secure contextual engine in place...so smart home companies can focus on creating experiences that are helpful and intuitive."
What is "missing" is a connectivity layer and an intelligence system that can process all the signals and understand the right output. With processing "ideally" done locally in the home, using Face Match for the Nest Hub Max to display personalized content based on facial recognition. Personal data like pictures won't be sent to the cloud. Verification will "happen on the device itself."
To do this you have to "understand the context of multiple people in the house and react to it." Chandra suggests Voice Match on Home speakers, and Face Match on the Nest Hub Max as some of the "building blocks."
Ambient tech is poised to bring curated CX into homes in order to serve up helpful experiences and creative content like an "orchestra conductor brandishing an invisible baton."


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Punjab Revenue Authority has been making efforts to bring internet giants in its tax net and had previously issued notices to Facebook, Google, DailyMotion for getting themselves registered in Lahore and pay taxes for the revenues they make out of Punjab.
Facebook, surprisingly, sent a reply to the PRA via a letter and said:
Registration with the PRA is not applicable to us as we aren’t taxable in the country. We are providing our online services from Ireland from where the multinational corporation is operating.
On the other hand, according to PRA act, advertisers — those Pakistani individuals and businesses that advertise through Facebook — are liable to sales tax. A section of PRA Act says:
Where a taxable service originates from outside Pakistan but is received or terminates in the Punjab, the recipient of such service shall be liable to pay the tax to the government.
PRA is essentially looking for a way to tax Pakistanis who advertise on Facebook, however, they can’t know the advertisers without Facebook’s help.
Facebook, while playing tactfully, is not even close to helping PRA as it doesn’t want to increase the cost of advertising on its platform by exposing advertisers’ list as by doing so the ad spend on its website will decrease.
Punjab Revenue Authority, in this situation, can do “Compulsory Registration” of such companies — including Facebook, Google, DailyMotion etc. — after which legal action can be taken against these companies.
PRA, under the legal cover, can approach Pakistan Telecommunication Authority and get these websites blocked in Pakistan for not paying taxes.
PRA has said that its legal wing is considering all possible options to get these websites with-in the tax net.
Via The News


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TIBCO Software, a provider of solutions for integration, API management, and analytics, has entered into an agreement to acquire Cisco's Data Virtualization business (formerly Composite Software), specifically Cisco Information Server, a solution that enables enterprise-scale data virtualization, and associated consulting and support services.
The transaction remains subject to customary conditions and is expected to close in the coming weeks.
According to TIBCO, this is a strategic move that will strengthen its portfolio of analytics products, allowing businesses to get analytic solutions into production faster than alternatives, while continuing to adapt as data sources change from traditional databases and big data sources to cloud and IoT.
The Cisco data virtualization technology can access a large, diverse, and complex set of enterprise data stores and create a "virtual" data layer for analytics without disturbing the source data, and without extracting data via ETL in a separate data warehouse.
"Data Virtualization helps our customers find and analyze the data they need in hours or days, rather than months, so that they can quickly discover insights and take insight-driven action," said Mark Palmer, senior vice president of analytics, TIBCO. "The next generation of business intelligence depends on doing more with analytics than just putting data on a graph. Data Virtualization is a key component of getting the right data at the right time to business analysts, data scientists, and automated applications using streaming analytics."
The addition of the Data Virtualization business will enable TIBCO analytics users, including TIBCO Spotfire customers, to improve data agility for faster responses to ever-changing analytics and business intelligence needs, reduce data complexity for enhanced scalability, and drive better business insights. Spotfire is an enterprise-class analytics platform with built-in data wrangling that delivers AI-driven, visual, and streaming analytics. The Spotfire product line includes seamless enhancement of Cisco's Data Virtualization into TIBCO's broader Connected Intelligence platform, while also delivering end-to-end data discovery and governance.
For more information, go to www.tibco.com.


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Majesco Entertainment today announced that Advent Rising has launched for Xbox. June 30th will be the launch date for the PC version of the game. Information about Advent Rising and the Ã¢â‚¬Å“Race to Save HumanityÃ¢â‚¬? contest can be found at: www.adventtrilogy.com.
Majesco is supporting the launch of Advent Rising with its Ã¢â‚¬Å“Race to Save HumanityÃ¢â‚¬? Million Dollar Play-and-Win contest beginning on June 9. Made possible only through XboxÃ¢â€žÂ¢ Live and running only for six weeks, the contest offers the first 500,000 eligible consumers who find hidden Ã¢â‚¬ËœAÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ icons within the Xbox game a chance to win hundreds of weekly prizes and one grand prize of $1,000,000.
Ã¢â‚¬Å“With Advent Rising we not only wanted to create an innovative experience, but develop an entire universe in which players could completely immerse themselves,Ã¢â‚¬? said Ken Gold, vice president of Marketing for Majesco. Ã¢â‚¬Å“Advent RisingÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s masterful approach to graphics and game play mechanics coupled with the tremendous literary vision of Orson Scott Card will captivate the mind and emotions of the player, while pushing the bounderies of gaming to an exciting new level.Ã¢â‚¬?


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ServiceMax, backed by Silver Lake and GE, to go public in $ 1.4 billion PSPC deal
ServiceMax has agreed to merge with a specialist acquisition company in a deal that will go public with the maker of field technician software, the companies said Thursday.
The software company, whose current owners include private equity firm Silver Lake, General Electric Co.
and the venture capital arm of enterprise software giant Salesforce.com CRM -2.00%
– will merge with Pathfinder Acquisition Corp.
in a deal that values ââServiceMax at around $ 1.4 billion.
The Wall Street Journal reported on the transaction earlier.
ServiceMax also signed an agreement to purchase LiquidFrameworks Inc., which provides field service software to the oil and gas industry, from private equity firm Luminate Capital Partners, for $ 145 million. It will fund the deal out of the roughly $ 335 million in cash resulting from the merger with Pathfinder.
SPACs raise funds by becoming empty shells on the stock market, then have a set period, usually two years, to find a company to merge with. The strategy, which may be faster and have fewer regulatory hurdles than a traditional initial public offering, gained popularity last year, but enthusiasm has cooled lately.
Pathfinder, which debuted in April, is the product of a partnership between private equity firm HGGC LLC and venture capital firm Industry Ventures.
ServiceMax’s cloud-based software, which is built on the Salesforce platform, helps field service agents in a wide variety of industries maintain equipment more efficiently. Its clients include Schneider Electric SE, 3D Systems Corp.
and GE GE -0.39%
Its business has been boosted by the coronavirus pandemic as more employers realize the importance of arming their field workers with the most modern tools, ServiceMax chief executive Neil Barua said in an interview.
“Businesses are realizing that they can’t send frontline workers to repair stationery or forklifts at an Amazon warehouse without giving them the software to do so,” said Barua, who will continue to be employed. the position of CEO. âWe’re really feeling that tail wind on the back of our necks right now. “
Headquartered in Pleasanton, California, the company was founded in 2007 and was previously part of GE Digital. At the end of 2018, GE agreed to sell 90% of the company to Silver Lake as part of its desire to dispose of assets unrelated to its core business. The exact terms of this transaction were not disclosed, but the company was valued at a discount from the $ 915 million GE paid in 2016 for the entire entity, the Wall Street Journal reported. .
Salesforce Ventures and Silver Lake led an additional $ 80 million investment in ServiceMax in February 2020. The company said at the time that it planned to use the money to deepen product development and improve the experience. customer in manufacturing, medical devices, energy, heavy equipment and other industrial markets.
Silver Lake, Salesforce Ventures, and GE retain all of their stakes in the business.
Write to Miriam Gottfried at [email protected]
Copyright Â© 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Appeared in the print edition of July 16, 2021 under the title “ServiceMax To Go Public After Deal With SPAC”.


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Music streaming platform Spotify has said that it is shutting down its live-audio app -- "Spotify Live".
However, the company said it will continue to explore live features on its main platform, reports TechCrunch.
Music Ally first reported the news.
"After a period of experimentation and learnings around how Spotify users interact with live audio, we've made the decision to sunset the Spotify Live app," a spokesperson was quoted as saying.
"We believe there is a future for live fan-creator interactions in the Spotify ecosystem; however, based on our learnings, it no longer makes sense as a standalone app. We have seen promising results in the artist-focused use case of 'listening parties,' which we will continue to explore moving forward to facilitate live interactions between artists and fans," it added.
In April 2022, the company integrated the live audio capabilities from its companion app, Spotify Greenroom, within the main Spotify streaming app and rebranded Greenroom as "Spotify Live", the report mentioned.
Meanwhile, Spotify has said that it is testing a redesign of its user profiles, including a card-style layout that allows users to establish more of a social identity on the platform while also providing easy access to its unique features, such as personalised recommendations, Blend playlists, co-listening experience, and more.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
First Published: Apr 04 2023 | 12:35 PM IST


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CrowdSource, LLC has launched a new service for their Scalable Workforce platform called Worker Profiles. Worker Profiles will allow users of Scalable Workforce to measure their working performance against other members, providing more nuanced feedback and a more competitive environment.
Freelancer.com, the popular online freelance job marketplace, today announced a horizontal expansion into a variety of crowdsourcing design categories. The move brings the crowdsourced design offerings on the Freelancer.com platform up to 18 different categories, including logos, websites, as well as a generic catch-all option.
Early in the second quarter of 2011, Scalable Workforce, LLC acquired the CrowdSource brand with the hopes that it would help them continue to unlock the enormous potential of crowdsourcing solutions in business practices. Today they announced the official launch of CrowdSource, LLC as well as some future plans for the company.
Thanks to the kind folks at CrowdFlower the Daily Crowdsource is going to be giving away 6 tickets to CrowdConf2011. Rather than handing them all out in one week, we have decided to run five or six “mini-giveaways” leading up to the conference.
Daily Crowdsource, thanks to Aliza Sherman, is giving away a signed copy of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Crowdsourcing. In a continuing effort to build our forums into the best crowdsourcing discussion venue around, we would like to encourage increased participation from our readers. In that vein, we plan on giving the book to the overall best forum contributor as of August 12th. We will take into account post count, insightfulness, and overall post quality in making our selection.
The Daily Crowdsource would like to invite you to a book launch party for author Aliza Sherman to celebrate the release of her new book The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Crowdsourcing. The party will take place on August 3rd at the VisionPulse Creative Event & Meeting Center in San Diego courtesy of co-hosts MySearchGuru, and everyone’s favorite crowdsourcing info site (us). The first 25 people to arrive will receive a free, signed copy of Aliza’s book.
Our two week long book giveaway has finally come to a close. Our five winners will be contacted shortly to receive their copy of The Open Innovation Marketplace: Creating Value in the Challenge Driven Enterprise. The winners are Benzon, Joe Test, NancyHoffman, Zorrie, and Petrucci26.
Kickstarter recently announced its 10,000th successfully funded project. The project was a 7? record by a band called Citizen, located in Ohio, that raised $830.00, bringing the total amount of money collected by successful projects up to $60 million. Along with this announcement, Kickstarter released a fairly detailed blog post looking at various milestones and metrics surrounding their two years in business.
CrowdFlower has just announced CrowdConf2011, which will be taking place at the Mission Bay Conference Center in downtown San Francisco between the 1st and 2nd of November. CrowdFlower expects to see over 600 business leaders, CEOs, and academics at the event. Attendees will be discussing practical applications of crowdsourcing as well as, among other topics, the latest research findings, task design, quality assurance, metrics, and the social and economic impacts of crowdsourcing.
The Requests for Proposal Database (RFPdb), created by web design and custom web-based software development firm Confluent Forms, recently hit the 100,000 subscriber milestone. With a growth rate of 2,000 new users a month and a unique crowdsourcing model the database is able to consistently list billions of dollars in project opportunities each month.


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I’m always impressed by the turn over speed of major new releases of iOS. iOS 14 adoption rate is already surpassing iOS 13 after less than six weeks of availability. Wow.
Apple’s iPhone ecosystem is running at blazing speed to adopt new technologies. There is nothing like that in tech. Even if people are keeping their old iPhone longer, by supporting old devices, Apple can set the bar for new privacy features and make them available to a vast portion of the users. This is something we rarely talk about.


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Norbert Dentressangle has begun operating a new asset handling and recycling centre in Bristol on behalf of Asda. The 110,000ft² purpose-built centre opened in February in support of Asda’s new Bristol DC, where the supermarket […]
XPO Logistics, formerly Norbert Dentressangle, has renewed its contract with Tesco for the management of the retailer’s Recycling Service Units (RSUs) across the UK and Ireland.
Strong growth in its logistics division helped offset declining revenues from transport at Norbert Dentressangle last year, leaving the firm’s turnover almost 4% up with a fractional increase in profitability.
Bibby Distribution has moved into chilled and frozen logistics after securing a three-year contract with supermarket discounter Netto.


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Orange Boasts Strong Q1 in Africa, Middle East
Having postponed plans for an IPO last year, Eaton Towers has agreed a sale to American Tower in a deal valued at $1.85 billion.
CEO signs up for another year.
Long-awaited IPO finally executed, with dramatic effect.
Operator reacts to Reuters story about CEO Bob Collymore's impending departure but fails to confirm any plans.
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- Americans are embracing humble popcorn as the new trendy snack, and research from Mintel shows consumers are hungry for indulgent and savory flavor innovation. Driven by the increasingly popular ready-to-eat (RTE) popcorn category, total U.S. retail sales of popcorn grew 32% in the past five years to reach $2.5 billion in 2017, the Mintel report finds. RTE popcorn leads the flavor innovation wave, growing 118% from 2012 to 2017 to reach $1.1 billion.
- The report notes that traditional varieties of specialty popcorn, such as cheese-flavored (49%) and indulgent varieties such as chocolate- or caramel-covered (32%) are high on everyone's list of favorites. But other varieties are gaining popularity as well, such as mixed-flavor varieties, which might offer salty, sweet and cheesy popcorn in one bag (39%), or those with mixed-in toppings such as dried cranberries or candy (20%). Seasonal flavors, such as pumpkin spice or gingerbread (12%) are also popular, but most buyers still prefer traditional flavors, with research showing nearly half (45%) of popcorn purchased is an all-natural variety.
- “RTE popcorn brands are finding success not only through an expanding array of creative new flavors, but also by tapping into growing interest in healthy, natural and portable snacks and eating occasions,” said John Owen, senior food and drink analyst at Mintel, in a news release.
Why the current boom in popcorn? One expert thinks the market is exploding because the salty snack satisfies top consumer needs. The treat offers both taste and nutrition and makes people happy, Fauzia Haq, senior director of marketing at Pepsico — which owns popcorn brand Smartfood — told Baking Business earlier this year.
"How could something so light and airy actually be satisfying? It’s more of an emotional satisfaction," Haq told the publication. "You get so many hand-to-mouth trips when you're eating popcorn, so that in itself is very satisfying."
Food companies are eager to capitalize on this popularity, adding more flavors, as well as natural and low-calorie versions that marry consumer perception of the snack as an indulgent move theater treat with the benefits of a better-for-you snack.
The opportunity in this segment is reflected by a wave of M&A sparked by Big Food firms. Last fall, Conagra Brands bought Angie's Boomchickapop for $250 million, bringing the trendy RTE popcorn alongside its more traditional Orville Redenbacher brand. In December, Hershey acquired Amplify Snack Brands, parent company of SkinnyPop, for $1.6 billion. Amplify's portfolio also includes Tyrrells potato chips, Oatmega protein bars and cookies and Paqui tortilla chips.
"The acquisition of Amplify and its product portfolio is an important step in our journey to becoming an innovative snacking powerhouse as together it will enable us to bring scale and category management capabilities to a key sub-segment of the warehouse snack aisle," Hershey CEO Michelle Buck said in a news release last year.
Hershey's purchase of Amplify was a savvy one, as SkinnyPop is currently the largest brand of popcorn in the U.S., taking up almost 25% of category market share.
It seems likely that more acquisitions in this space are around the corner, as consumer interest in snacking and healthier lifestyles show no sign of slowing down. Popcorn brands like Boomchickapop could serve as a bridge to younger demographics, such as millennial and Gen Z consumers, for slower-moving legacy companies and give them new paths to growth. Food manufacturers could also benefit from analyzing the flavor trends that are benefiting popcorn and applying them to other better-for-you snacks, such as veggie chips or crackers.


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The two-tone Aqua Shift Special Edition Xbox Wireless Controller with a shimmering sheen is the latest controller to hit the Special Edition branch. It will be available in September.
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy is a fantastic but restricted adventure
guardians of the galaxy
Build 22000.282 fixes for Ryzen L3 cache performance issue, and more
windows 11 insider preview


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Taking cue from the recent security breach that hit a massive number of Jeep cars, Fiat Chrysler has responded proactively to a bug threa by recalling close to 7,810 SUVs from the United States, after a glitch was discovered in the security system that gave attackers the ability to remotely control a vehicle.
The models that have been recalled include the variants of the 2015 Jeep Renegade SUV models. The good news here is that this model is still lying at dealers side, and is likely going to be patched before it rolls out on to the streets.
The security bug was first noticed in the system when a team of researchers brought the issue into public domain in July. The cars Uconnect control system gave a green pass to the attackers who wished to control the car remotely. The attackers could even switch off the car engine’s without the knowledge of the driver.
Fearing the consequences the company has decided to recall 1.4 million vehicles, suspected to be affected with the bug.
In a statement, Fiat Chrysler said
The campaign — which involves radios that differ from those implicated in another, similar recall – is designed to protect connected vehicles from remote manipulation. If unauthorized, such interference constitutes a criminal act.
The Company is unaware of any injuries related to software exploitation, nor is it aware of any related complaints, warranty claims or accidents – independent of the media demonstration.
The customers can check the status of their vehicle , if its part of the recall models. Those vehicles that are found to be having this bug can be debugged from September 5 through a software or with the help of a technician, who will update the system at no extra charge.
The company is also giving away a USB device to the customers so that they may update the system software with ease. But considering the limited security provided by a USB device, industry experts feel it’s easy to hack. With the USB device an attacker can install a malware into the disk, and control the system. Once installed the malware will be harder to track until it’s too late for both the driver and the automaker.
Recommended for you
- Hyundai’s new Android Wear app will let you control your car through your wrist
- Tesla Model X spotted on California highway during test-run
- Jaguar’s Future Cars Will Sense Your Brainwaves Via ‘Sixth Sense’
- Tesla Model X sighted – Caught on video
- LG to develop next-gen camera systems for driverless Mercedes-Benz cars of the future
- New ‘Ludicrous’ Mode In Tesla S Will Take It From 0-60 In Just 2.8 Seconds
- Meet Sri Lanka’s ‘electronic beast’ : The 900 HP ‘Vega’
- Nvidia announces Drive CX : ‘The Most advanced digital cockpit computer in the world’


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Labyrinth Game Shop yesterday launched its first online store, and it has a feature that will be helpful to moms and dads: You can shop by age, with age groups starting at “under 2 years” and going up incrementally to 18+.
“We know playing games and doing puzzles can be a small escape during these trying times, so we’re still committed to getting you new games and puzzles, and hosting ‘virtual’ events!” said Labyrinth in its email newsletter.
The online store displays more than 150 products– a small portion of the store’s inventory, but staff are working to add more every day. If you don’t see exactly what you want, email the store at firstname.lastname@example.org to get recommendations.
You can order online for local delivery or pickup at Mr. Henry’s–where you can also score food and drinks for a fun night in. For those not in the local delivery area, the store will add shipping by this Wednesday, April 22.
Labyrinth has transitioned many of its events online. Find events in its online calendar.
The store has also been busy supporting the community. With the help of customers, the store bought and delivered more than $1,700 in games and puzzles to DC shelters. This week, Labyrinth is accepting donations to get games and puzzles for Sasha Bruce Youthworks, Inc., an organization that helps homeless kids and young adults. Email email@example.com if you would like to help.
In case you missed it: